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So I’ve been playing this game called Borderlands 2...and IT’S AWESOME’, is what I’m inclined to say and I’m going to try and reign myself in here. This way I can try and articulate a piece of writing, that doesn’t show me to be some rabid fan-boy.

The fact of the matter is this; I’m not a fan-boy. I didn’t highly anticipate the game until very close to its release. I’d always been intrigued by the first Borderlands but something about it scared me off. I think that stems from the fact that in theory to describe the borderlands franchise is simple; ‘Shoot and Loot’. Describing the Borderlands experience to someone who has never played it is always tricky because essentially it’s going to boil down to: you go here, pick up quest, shoot and loot, hand in quest, rinse and repeat. Honestly that kind of description is a disservice because although essentially even though those are the fundamentals throughout the game, the way in which it is executed is done perfectly. Where the original game was concerned, aforementioned reasons stopped me from ever purchasing it despite glowing reviews.

Anyway fast-forward to now, I’ve taken the plunge and fallen deeply. It took a while before this ‘fan-boy’ like attitude towards the game hit though. I say this because the first few hours of the game are slow, I mean really slow. Nothing of great impact really happens either, nothing stands out. There was the odd joke to be sniggered at, the odd reference to popular culture but not a lot else. The quests were just the usual mundane fare of fetch quests and kill X amount of this etc. The game gets going once you reach Sanctuary, the quest HUB of Pandora. All of a sudden the game-play becomes more archaic and frantic, with scraps of Hyperion bots flying all over the shop.

Ok reading that last paragraph back, I can see myself going into reviewer mode. That’s not really what I want to do as I’m sure most people have already read a million reviews, which all pretty much say the same thing. So I guess I could just talk about my experiences with two different characters I’m using? Yeah ok, I’ll do that.

So I’ve got two characters on the go. I’ve got my Siren which I’m using for solo play and then in my other save I’m using the Mechromancer, which I’m going through with two other friends.

Just so that certain story elements of the game weren’t ruined throughout co-operative play, I decided that it would be a good idea to make a character for solo play. I opted for the Siren as her ability was the one that got me the most excited pre-release. Phase-lock BITCHES! The game is obviously geared for co-operative play, there are bosses in this game that are sometimes just too much to take on solo... especially when your ability doesn’t work on some of them *sigh* that said I’m still having a great time with it. Being able to take the time over loot and do things in a leisurely fashion is a definite bonus over co-operative play.

Ok so the best and worst of my experiences with Borderlands 2 have come with the co-op. This is mainly due to the tension and stressfulness of some sessions. So tonight we’re questing in the dust and I open a crate. Out pops an orange SMG, I mention it and ensues a stressful debate about who should carry it. I end up winning on a coin toss, thrown by another third party. The next ten minutes of play are tense. I will say we are close friends and there was never a danger of any breakdown of that relationship but this just proves the allure and desire for rare loot. Overall though I’m having a blast, playing with friends is how this game is supposed to be and it’s where it’s at its strongest.

(Oh right, I was going to talk about the Mechromancer. Geeze I’m rambling tonight)

So the Mechromancer is an interesting build. Supposedly the ‘n00b’ build, understandably as it has an arguably overpowered Deathtrap taking care of business however, it offers a skill tree that completely switches the game on its head. This comes in the form of the ‘ordered chaos’ tree. The idea of this tree is that you empty clips onto enemies in order to gain a stack of ‘anarchy’, each stack of anarchy adds 1.75% of gun damage to your stats and takes 1.75% gun accuracy away from your stats. You can have up to something like 400 stacks, maybe? If you manually reload however you will start to lose your stacks. There is a skill later on though that gives you an accuracy bonus and health bonus as a swap for your stacks. This changes the priorities of the game immediately. All of a sudden you’re looking for guns with high damage but smaller clip and a faster reload speed. Accuracy becomes a non-issue because as you gain stacks you’ll lose it anyway, forcing you to be more aggressive and up-front. There are a load of different strategies to implement with this skill tree that are so different to any other character play style in the game and if you can’t tell I’m having a blast playing as her.

I have a feeling that despite my best efforts this came off as quite a fan-boy post but whatever it doesn’t matter. I’m about level 20 with the Siren and level 23 with the Mechromancer. Have plenty of core game content yet to still plough through as well as purchasing the Captain Scarlet DLC today – yet to try it. I’m loving every second.

Other gaming based ramblings

Ok so despite Borderlands 2 becoming the main time –sink in my life I have purchased my annual iteration of FIFA 13 and got the bargain of Torchlight II of STEAM.

Only managed Act I of Torchlight thus far and it’s an absolute steal for the price I paid for it. It has simple game-play mechanics, yet they are deep enough to keep me trying out new builds and characters. I love the randomly generated world as well makes every time I load up feel fresh and new. Like I said I haven’t been able to put a massive amount of time into it yet but it’s there on the desktop waiting for me to dive in.

Not sure what to say on FIFA 13, as I’m sure the few who read this actually care much about it. I personally love it and I will probably clock more hours into this than any other game over the next 12 months.

In terms of games yet to play, I really like the look of Dishonoured and XCOM, as well as a few other titles on the horizon. Anyone who has played them drop me a line, what have your experiences with the game been like? In fact drop me a line about any of the games mentioned in this post, or in fact any games not mentioned that you reckon I should be playing. I would love to hear from some of you.

Ok so it’s been a while since I’ve wrote anything, on here, at all. So what better way to re-enter the fray, than to post a quick list and overview of what games I’ve been playing and a quick summary of each. No spoilers

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I’ve put off playing this game, time and time again. This was mainly due to work commitments and the ever increasing pile of assignments due in for university *cough* Skyrim *cough*, but yeah I’ve recently managed to get myself back into it and oh my, what a game.

It’s by no means the game changer a lot of people, me included thought it was going to be but it has some incredibly satisfying moments. The game, for me is at its strongest when you’re exploring and doing missions in the Detroit and Heng Sha levels. It was at its weakest when throwing you in boss battles. I don’t think the boss battles ruined the experience but they were definitely a strange inclusion. I also felt the ending was a tad weak, considering how great the story was leading up to that point.

Dark Souls

Dark Souls is one of my favourite games of the past decade. I don’t really need to wax lyrical about this game, as everyone else before me has done so, with every small detail reviewed. So I will just say this; play this game, don’t be intimidated. The difficulty of the game is not unfair, it merely acts as a teaching tool for progressing and when you progress in this game it is one of the most gratifying feelings you will ever get in gaming.

Mass Effect 3

I’ll start of by saying this; I didn’t complete the game until after the extended endings had been released, so I can’t comment on the original ending. The ending that I got however was fine and wrapped up the story nicely.

I absolutely love this series, the story is absolutely incredible and everything about the game oozes class. The shooting mechanics were solid and the role playing elements (although barebones) worked well in tangent. I wish there were more side quests and less of the ones where you just scanned a planet. I may be the only one but I miss the driving mechanics from the first game, being dropped into a massive open area and having to explore to find the objective gave the whole thing an epic space exploration feel but I digress. Mass Effect 3 is a great end to this space opera trilogy and while Shepard’s journey may be over, I would love to see more games set in this universe.

Skyrim

Over 109 hours played. I recently came back to this after leaving it on the shelf, after completing the story quest back in March. I thought I’d try and complete any of the side-quests left and try attaining as many achievements as possible. This was a mistake, as I have further been engulfed into the world of Skyrim.

I have many gripes with this game; the combat is still a bit meh, the dungeons are quite samey and the quests can get quite boring. Surprisingly, you might note, I haven’t mentioned any of the glitch and/or broken game issues many others have suffered. That’s because honestly I didn’t really experience of those issues. I did stumble across the occasional glitch but it was never game breaking, I was obviously quite lucky in that regard. Anyway the positives of this game for me outweigh the negatives. Skyrim is a massively detailed and beautiful world, with plenty of content.

Other games I’ve been playing..

I’ve been playing A LOT of FIFA.. It’s my go to game when playing with mates and honestly I wish more games had a plethora of modes to choose from.

I have also been playing Saints Row: The Third. This game is so much fun, like a lot of fun! The story and premise is ridiculous but it never really pretends to be anything else and the world is just littered with a lot of activities and missions to get on with however I feel the game world itself is a bit bland with a generic city setting and the lack of traffic and pedestrians make it feel a little hollow at times.

Ooh before I forget... Batman Arkham City. One of my favourite games I've played this year. Don't have anything much insightful to say on ithowever. You play as batman and you beat things up and Rocksteady have done that really well..so yeah.

Games I’m looking forward to...

Well I can only think of one at the top of my head and that game is Borderlands 2. Man this game looks so good! I can’t wait to get stuck in. Might even consider getting into the ‘let’s play’ business and uploading some four player co-op.

Sorry if my review for each game was concise but I honestly couldn't think of anything to say that hasn't already been said a million times before by other people. Hopefully from now on I'll be more motivated to write a lot more.

You can expect some posts in the recent future including my thoughts on Borderlands 2 and maybe (if i ever get round to playing it) Sleeping Dogs.